Mayor’s office adds $18,000 curtains

1of 3The mayor’s office spent nearly $18,000 in faux silk curtains that can be opened and closed with a remote control.Photo: Tom Reel /San Antonio Express-News

2of 3The mayor’s office spent nearly $18,000 in faux silk curtains that can be opened and closed with a remote control.Photo: Tom Reel /San Antonio Express-News

3of 3The mayor’s office spent nearly $18,000 in faux silk curtains that can be opened and closed with a remote control.Photo: Tom Reel /San Antonio Express-News

Mayors here often put their own touch on the stately wood-paneled office they inhabit while leading the city of San Antonio from the first floor of City Hall — including, now, nearly $18,000 in faux silk curtains that can be opened and closed with a remote control.

A spokesman for Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in an emailed statement that the office’s curtains needed to be replaced and that the city budgets annually for repairs and improvements. The $17,949.40 bill for the custom-made curtains, obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, fit within the budgeted funds, the statement said.

Nirenberg did not respond to a text message seeking comment.

“The mayor’s office is the living room for the entire city. The expenses incurred anytime for the upkeep of City Hall are done so with the intent of enhancing the city’s image in the world,” spokesman Bruce Davidson said in the statement. “International leaders, corporate leaders, military officials and political leaders meet regularly with the mayor and other city officials in the office.”

Since Nirenberg has been mayor, he’s met with several high-ranking officials, including the Spanish ambassador to the U.S.; the Mexican ambassador; consuls general from Mexico, Ireland and South Korea; and corporate officials interested in investing in the city, the statement said.

Nirenberg has also hosted a meeting with representatives from San Antonio’s newest sister city — Darmstadt, Germany, according to the mayor’s spokesman, who added that national and international news networks have used the office as a studio to film interviews with Nirenberg as well. And with San Antonio’s upcoming, yearlong Tricentennial celebration, Nirenberg will likely play host to many other dignitaries as well.

The office’s windows, which have built-in wooden shutters, haven’t always had drapes. Former Mayor Ivy Taylor apparently had some sheer window treatments installed during her term, which began in mid-2014 and ended when she was ousted by Nirenberg earlier this year. There were no curtains hanging during former Mayor Julián Castro’s tenure. The office suite has its own bathroom, built-in bookshelves and a semi-circular area with a large desk. There’s also a sitting area with a sofa, chairs and a coffee table. The space has about a half-dozen windows facing south and east, toward San Fernando Cathedral.

The curtains were fabricated and installed by Royal Window Fashions, a local company that has done work for major public- and private-sector organizations. Owner Rand Goldstein said the curvature of the City Hall office necessitated the construction of a custom template used to fabricate the curtains’ hanging rods.

The city’s purchase order, dated Sept. 8 with an Oct. 30 delivery, notes that the purchase included “draperies and rod mounted valances” in the color of “Poseidon” and a pattern of “Marco.”

In layman’s terms, they’re cut from a solid blue, faux silk fabric with a light sheen.

The standard commercial fabric is a fire-retardant mixture of rayon and acetate and has a 10-year warranty, Goldstein said.

He noted that there’s a common misconception that custom-cut draperies are automatically more expensive than the pre-made variety. That’s not always the case, he said.

“Due to the nature of the architecture of that building, you’re not going to find ready-made curtains and draperies,” he said. And altering pre-made drapes can cost more than making them from scratch.

The City Council is mulling a plan for a $38 million, top-to-bottom renovation of City Hall, which could commence next summer and is expected to completely shutter the building for 15 months or more. Davidson said that the new curtains would be used in the mayor’s office after the renovation as well.

Across the country, governmental entities struggle with aging facilities and balancing the need for renovations with their costs and a public perspective on needs versus extravagance.

According to the Palm Beach Post, for example, “Then-Sheriff Ken Jenne spent $1.6 million in public grant funds creating a wood-paneled, private lair on the fifth floor of the Broward Sheriff's Office headquarters on West Broward Boulevard.” The newspaper describes a bifurcated floor, where one side was a typical bureaucratic office while the other side (where the sheriff and the command staff worked) was a luxurious space adorned with nearly a half-million dollars in furniture and included swank sofas, marble and granite counter tops and a leather love seat.

Meanwhile, reaction to the expenditure was mixed.

Councilman Rey Saldaña, in his fourth and final term, said the mayor’s office has a budget from which it can work.

Elected officials have authority — and funding — to put their own touch on their space. In fact, council members have an annual budget that allows them to outfit their field offices.

“I would only ask if it was out of the norm of any other administration,” he said.

But the cost of the mayor’s curtains raises questions, Councilman Greg Brockhouse said, especially when juxtaposed against rate increases for San Antonio Water System customers.

“That’s a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money,” Brockhouse said.

It’s nearly 40 percent of a council member’s annual salary of $45,722, which was the median household income in San Antonio when voters approved council pay a few years ago.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a former mayor, said he recalls adding art to his office, but not at the taxpayers’ expense.

“I don’t know what to say about that at all. I mean, they certainly have a right to decorate and change City Hall,” he said. “Everybody that comes in wants something that’s a little different for the office.”

Wolff said he didn’t want to wade too deeply into the issue. Asked whether he would spend $18,000 on curtains for his courthouse office, Wolff dodged the question.

Josh Baugh has covered City Hall for the San Antonio Express-News since 2009. A native of the Alamo City, Baugh was hired as a suburban-cities reporter at his hometown newspaper in 2006. He began his newspaper career at the Denton Record-Chronicle while working on a master's degree in journalism at the University of North Texas and later covered Texas A&M University for The Eagle in College Station. He's covered various facets of government and politics ever since. Baugh has previously written about public housing, county government and transportation for the Express-News.